This week in Iceland

AWARD winning capital…again The 2018 Luxury Travel Guide (LTG) has named Reykjavík as the European Adventure Destination of the Year. This is the second consecutive year that the prestigious travel periodical has selected Reykjavík as a destination: In 2017 Reykjavík was LTG Winter Destination of the Year.

IT’S getting lighter… ICELAND has celebrated its shortest day of the year when the sun was only in the sky for four hours and seven minutes, rising at 11.22am and setting at 3.29pm. Members of the Ásatrú religion celebrated the Winter Solstice with a blót (sacrificial) ceremony at Öskjuhlíð hill in Reykjavik.

WINDBLOWN…but safe A MINIBUS carrying 16 tourists was blown off the road during a strong gust of wind close to the town of Reynisfjall. Emergency services were called to the scene but although some passengers needed to be helped, nobody was injured in the accident.

HOTEL promotion success TOUR operators spent the pre-Christmas season working steadily on increasing the tourist flow to Iceland. A spokesperson for Icelandair Hotels said: “It’s very important that Christmas in Iceland isn’t popular just for one year. Hopefully it will become a popular season for years to come.”

EARLY morning shakes TWO earthquakes were registered at Bárðarbunga on Christmas Eve, both at a magnitude of over 4 on the Richter scale. The first occurred at 4.57am and measured 4.1 and the second at 5.29am measuring 4.4. According to the Iceland Met Office there are no signs of a resulting eruption.